Topic: N10bn jet scandal: House of Representatives sued by Diezani  (Read 1689 times)

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N10bn jet scandal: House of Representatives sued by Diezani
« on: April 29, 2014, 02:35:45 PM »
The Minister of  Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke,  has   halted the investigation by the House of Representatives into the N10bn she allegedly spent on a chartered private jet, Challenger 850, in the last two years for her trips.

 The House Committee on Public Accounts investigating the expenditure was set to conduct a public hearing on Monday, but it was stalled by an Abuja  Federal High Court order.

 Alison- Madueke and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation   listed the National Assembly  and the House   of Representatives as the defendants in the suit with reference number  FHC/ABJ/CS/295/2014 and dated April 11, 2014.

 The PUNCH had reported exclusively on Monday that the hearing might  not take place, as the minister had already flouted a deadline the committee gave to her to make submissions before April 28.

It was gathered  that a “surprised” Tambuwal was served the restraining order on Monday morning.

 “This has never happened before in this country that a serving minister is asking a court to stop the parliament from doing its work,” a committee source told The PUNCH on Monday.

 “These are indeed, no ordinary times. I am seriously disturbed about the way we want to run this country”, he added.

 The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, confirmed the development to journalists.

 “The court processes were served on us today (Monday); the speaker has been served.

 “Simply put, it is to notify us that, this matter which you want to investigate, we have gone to court”, Mohammed stated.

 Mohammed described Alison-Madueke’s  action as a “temporary setback”? for the House, but assured the public that the legislature would fight to the finish.

 According to him, being a “law-abiding House”, the first reaction was to put the hearing on hold until legal opinions were sought.

 He spoke further, “We expected the minister to be here today(Monday) for the hearing.

 “Instead, we have been served with court processes. As law-abiding citizens, we have decided to wait. We will tarry awhile, take some legal opinions and move on  from there.

 “What has happened   tells you the kind of frustration that the House is facing. A matter of public importance is under investigation and a minister is telling us that she has gone to court.

 “However, our job is to expose corruption. We will study the court papers and take it up from there.”

 The  PAC Chairman, Mr. Solomon Olamilekan, expressed shock over the minister’s decision to “rush to court.”

 He asked, “Is this to say there is something to hide? What was she afraid of that she went to court?

 “The restraining order was served on the Office of the Speaker, stopping us from going ahead with the investigation.

“As a committee, we have not seen a copy, but since the speaker was served, we cannot pretend not to be aware.”

The PUNCH gathered that, while the original mandate of the committee was to investigate the alleged N10bn expenditure on the Challenger 850, the committee stumbled on additional information indicating that Alison-Madueke chartered two other jets.

One of them, a Global Express XRS, was said to have cost €600,000 in a return charter trip to London.

Olamilekan claimed that all was set for the probe on Monday (yesterday) only for members to be confronted with the news on the court order.

He stated that two aviation firms, Visa Jets and Jet Hanger, had already made submissions to the committee.

On the part of the NNPC, Olamilekan said the committee received a letter from the corporation asking for an extension of the deadline.

However, he admitted that, with the minister’s decision to go to court, the committee had been compelled to await the outcome of the court processes.

But, findings by The PUNCH showed that the committee members were in a dilemma long before  the court order  reached the House on Monday.

Alison-Madueke had twice failed to respond to letters the committee wrote, asking her to state her side of the allegation preparatory to the public hearing.

Read more: http://www.punchng.com/news/n10bn-jet-scandal-diezani-sues-house-of-representatives/

 

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